Langley Lydia K: insider trades

Director at Bank Of The James Financial Group Inc. 14 open-market purchases and no sales not made under a pre-set plan, reported from February 1, 2016 to July 29, 2020.

Would copying Langley Lydia K’s purchases have beaten the S&P 500?

Too few purchases to judge. Only 14 purchases have 12 months of prices after the report; we judge insiders once they have 20. The figures below can swing a long way on a handful of trades. Buying each purchase the day after it was reported, an equal amount each, and holding it 12 months or until they reported a sale would have turned $10,000 on February 2, 2016 into $20,024 by November 2, 2026, +6.7% a year. The copy held shares only 49% of the time, so the fair comparison is the S&P 500 on those same days with Treasury bills otherwise: $29,720, +10.7% a year (the S&P 500 held throughout made $47,304, +15.6% a year). Beta against the index was 0.14. Twelve months after each report, the average purchase was −5.7% against the S&P 500 (median −12.9%), and 29% beat it. Measured from the trade date, the insider’s own timing, the average was −4.1%.

With 296 insiders tested, some will look skilled or unskilled by chance alone: when we replaced each insider’s stocks with random companies bought on the same days, about 5.7 cleared the bar ahead and 23.3 behind. One record on its own proves little.

Copying Langley Lydia KS&P 500, same days investedS&P 500, held throughout $10,000 copying Langley Lydia K’s open-market purchases from February 2, 2016, before costs and taxes, marked weekly. Each purchase gets the same starting stake, bought at the close of the first trading day after the report and sold 12 months later or the day after a reported sale of that stock; uninvested money earns the Treasury bill rate. “Same days invested” holds the S&P 500 only on the days the copy held shares, Treasury bills otherwise.

Return a year, copying: +6.7%
S&P 500, same days invested: +10.7% (held throughout +15.6%)
Time in shares: 49%
Sharpe ratio (S&P 500): 0.30 (0.78)
Biggest drop (S&P 500): −50% (−34%)
Market sensitivity (beta): 0.14
Purchases copied: 14

Trade by trade

Langley Lydia K: trades against the S&P 500 afterwards
Measured	Trades counted	Average vs S&P 500	Median	Went the right way	Years	t-statistic	p-value	Evidence
Purchases, 3 months after the report	14	−5.4%	−6.0%	14%	5	−3.98	0.016	Some evidence: behind
Purchases, 6 months after the report	14	−5.5%	−7.5%	29%	5	−1.83	0.14	No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the report	14	−5.7%	−12.9%	29%	5	−0.43	0.69	No reliable evidence
Purchases, 12 months after the trade	14	−4.1%	−12.9%	29%	5	−0.20	0.85	No reliable evidence
Sales, 3 months after the report	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the report	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not enough years
Sales, 12 months after the trade	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not enough years

“Average vs S&P 500” is the stock’s return including dividends minus the index’s over the same dates, from the close on the first trading day after the report, or from the close on the trade date. Only windows that have finished are counted. For sales, a negative figure means the stock lagged after it was sold, so selling was the right call (green). “Went the right way” is the share of purchases that beat the index, or of sales that trailed it. The t-statistic uses one average per year of reports, because one person’s trades bunch into the same stock and weeks, and needs trades in at least four different years; the p-value comes from the t distribution with that number of years (with four years, a t of 2 has p = 0.14). “Some evidence” means p under 5%, “strong evidence” p under 1% over at least six years.

Companies traded

Company	Title on the latest filing	Purchases	Sales	First report	Latest report
Bank Of The James Financial Group Inc BOTJ	—	14	0	February 1, 2016	July 29, 2020

Trades and what followed

Moves are against the S&P 500; green means the trade went the insider’s way.

Reported	Traded	Company	Trade	Value	3 months after report	12 months after report	12 months after trade
July 29, 2020	July 28, 2020	BOTJ	Purchase	$19,780	−1.8%	+35.4%	+37.9%
July 28, 2020	July 27, 2020	BOTJ	Purchase	$29,453	−10.0%	+21.9%	+43.4%
April 27, 2020	April 24, 2020	BOTJ	Purchase	$32,663	−12.7%	+4.4%	+2.4%
May 2, 2019	May 2, 2019	BOTJ	Purchase	$43,080	+8.5%	−19.2%	−20.7%
May 2, 2019	May 1, 2019	BOTJ	Purchase	$28,780	+8.5%	−19.2%	−23.2%
January 28, 2019	January 28, 2019	BOTJ	Purchase	$64,860	−13.5%	−18.6%	−18.9%
January 28, 2019	January 25, 2019	BOTJ	Purchase	$42,900	−13.5%	−18.6%	−17.0%
October 26, 2018	October 25, 2018	BOTJ	Purchase	$14,890	−7.3%	−16.9%	−13.8%
October 24, 2018	October 23, 2018	BOTJ	Purchase	$21,000	−1.9%	−13.8%	−12.9%
October 22, 2018	October 19, 2018	BOTJ	Purchase	$10,731	−2.9%	−12.9%	−12.9%
October 23, 2017	October 20, 2017	BOTJ	Purchase	$77,327	−12.0%	−3.4%	−3.5%
July 24, 2017	July 21, 2017	BOTJ	Purchase	$22,665	−4.8%	−13.0%	−10.0%
April 25, 2017	April 24, 2017	BOTJ	Purchase	$10,236	−0.9%	−12.6%	−15.1%
February 1, 2016	February 1, 2016	BOTJ	Purchase	$11,900	−11.7%	+6.6%	+6.3%

Open-market purchases and sales of at least $10,000 in companies we cover, from SEC Form 4 filings; sales made under a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 plan are not shown. “Not yet” means the window has not finished or the share price was under $5 at entry. These are the shares’ moves after each trade: they say nothing about why Langley Lydia K traded and do not suggest the use of non-public information. How every insider compares · the insider trading backtest.